India purchases thousands of hectares of farmland
Add another country to the long list of nations participating in the controversial, "land grabbing." According to The Hindu News Update Service, India is the newest player in the land grab game.
Reports came out Sunday that many Indian farming companies were buying hundreds of thousands of hectares of African farmland that come as a, "challenge to China." China has publicly been known as one of the biggest "grabbers" in order to solve their food security issues.
Indian companies have purchased the farmland in Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Senegal and Mozambique. All land is said to be for growing grains.
Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar did not confirm these purchases or the rumor that the Indian Government has been behind the financing of such purchases, "Some companies are interested in buying agricultural land for sugarcane and then selling it on in the international markets. It's business, nothing more."
How does this affect global farmland?
The Hindu News Update Service says exactly what we have been claiming from many other sources, "Indians are now eating more meat and that has led many companies to grow maize animal feed in Africa as there are no government incentives for Indian farmers to grow it at home."
The changing diets of grain to meat of many countries is driving the demand for animal feed grains higher and higher. We have said that China's emerging middle class is single handedly driving up farmland demand and now we have the second largest country by population also creating a middle class. Over 35% of the global population lies in China and India, and now they are both involved in grabbing land to solve their food security issues.
We have spoken about land grabbing a lot lately because new reports have come out almost daily about new land grab deals. Global farmland demand is rising and the supply is not moving. Farmland prices are bound to increase globally and since the US has some of the best farmland in the world, US values will rise substantially.
- Colvin
Reports came out Sunday that many Indian farming companies were buying hundreds of thousands of hectares of African farmland that come as a, "challenge to China." China has publicly been known as one of the biggest "grabbers" in order to solve their food security issues.
Indian companies have purchased the farmland in Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Senegal and Mozambique. All land is said to be for growing grains.
Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar did not confirm these purchases or the rumor that the Indian Government has been behind the financing of such purchases, "Some companies are interested in buying agricultural land for sugarcane and then selling it on in the international markets. It's business, nothing more."
How does this affect global farmland?
The Hindu News Update Service says exactly what we have been claiming from many other sources, "Indians are now eating more meat and that has led many companies to grow maize animal feed in Africa as there are no government incentives for Indian farmers to grow it at home."
The changing diets of grain to meat of many countries is driving the demand for animal feed grains higher and higher. We have said that China's emerging middle class is single handedly driving up farmland demand and now we have the second largest country by population also creating a middle class. Over 35% of the global population lies in China and India, and now they are both involved in grabbing land to solve their food security issues.
We have spoken about land grabbing a lot lately because new reports have come out almost daily about new land grab deals. Global farmland demand is rising and the supply is not moving. Farmland prices are bound to increase globally and since the US has some of the best farmland in the world, US values will rise substantially.
- Colvin
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